11.11.09

Amazing Numbers

Posted in Technology Ventures, Globalization at 8:39 am by Ray Wu

Li Yizhong, director for China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at 2009 China Internet Conference held in Beijing that the scale of China’s network users has been increasing. By the end of September 2009, China had 1.044 billion phone users, including 324 million fixed telephone users and 720 million mobile phone users. The number of websites in China had reached 3.2 million. The number of China’s mobile Internet users had reached 192 million, a year-on-year increase of 62.7%.

The 720M cell phone user number is amazing and that represents only 54% of the population, in comparison, US has about 270M cell phone users and the cell penetration is already 88%. India is next to China in term of number of cell phone users, with about 510M cell phones and at 43% of penetration.

 

08.27.09

Do we have a lot to lose?

Posted in Technology Ventures at 4:59 am by Ray Wu

I am reading “The 4-hour workweek” book for the 2nd time. At the end of book, the author quoted a statement from Steve Jobs that I think are worthwhile to share:

“For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something…almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. ” — Steve Jobs

In addition, I also like the quote from Tim Ferriss, author of the book:

“The heaviness of success-chasing can be replaced with a serendipitous lightness when you recognize that the only rules and limits are those we set for ourselves”

Hope we can all enjoy our experience in our life time, because we bring nothing when we come to this life and we will take nothing with us when we die…. What we have today is really what matters.

07.25.08

China says its population of Internet users rises to world No. 1 at 253 million

Posted in Technology Ventures at 6:39 am by Ray Wu

This is quite interesting from the news:

China’s booming Internet population has surpassed the United States to become the world’s biggest, with 253 million people online despite government controls on Web use, according to government data reported Friday.

The latest figure on Web use at the end of June is a 56 percent increase over the same time last year, the China Internet Network Information Center said. It said the share of the Chinese public using the Internet is still just 19.1 percent, leaving more room for rapid growth.

The United States had an estimated 223.1 million Internet users in June, according to Nielsen Online, a research firm. The Pew Internet and American Life Project puts U.S. online penetration at 71 percent.

06.05.08

Global Inflation and Opporunity

Posted in Technology Ventures, Random thoughts, Globalization at 10:10 pm by Ray Wu

Fed Chief Ben Bernanke talks about his worry on inflation in the last 2 days. The problem is that Fed can no longer control the pricing alone in this globally integrated market. Since 70% of US GDP comes from service sector, it is almost impossible to see how heavy inflationary environment in China and India is not going to have a significant impact on US. We have seen heavy demand on not only industrial commodities such as oil and gas, but also agricultural commodities like rice and pork. As a matter of fact, Costco is limiting number of bag of rice a person can purchase at one visit. As more of more citizens in the developing countries become richer, they will also seek better life that most Americans get used to: better and more food, a car, a house etc. Imagine several billion of people flood to this new demand curve and its impact on the overall resources? We as a human race will come up solutions to deal with this resource demand/supply gap overtime, but the shock is unavoidable. It is actually good for the digital economy because digital economy is based on bountifulness of unlimited supply (ie. 1M download of a software is not going to be add noticeable cost than a single copy of download). While physical economy gets more constrained, the digital economy would be in favor. For example, as airline ticket goes up, people would use virtual meeting more than flying to meet in person. I see a lot of opportunities for us in the valley to benefit from this trend.

05.30.08

Back to root

Posted in Technology Ventures, Globalization at 6:21 am by Ray Wu

After going back to China almost every month this year, I start to really appreciate my root a lot. Since I left China in 1986, there are tremendous amount of changes in that country every year. But it is only until recent few years I start to see not only infrastructure upgrade, but also human capital upgrade. For the first time, I see people make it big not because they have connections and know how to wine and dine, but because they work hard. I see government officials clearly and openly outline their 5 year plan and push hard to make change happen. I see construction and booming everywhere. The latest stats came out last month that consumer spending is growing 22% Y/Y in April 2008. As a matter of fact, China is the third-biggest consumer of luxury goods in 2005 that accounts for 12 percent of sales worldwide. The analysts expect China to be second-largest purchaser of luxury goods by 2015 and account for 29 percent of the world’s luxury sales. According to Goldman Sachs, China GDP will bypass US by 2040, but that’s assuming Chinese currency would stay flat. With current currency appreciation rate, I expect China GDP to pass US within the next 15 years. This is a figure business week mentioned in one of its articles a few weeks ago. From a technology perspective, China is the largest Internet countries in the world with 225M users and counting, 53% Y/Y growth in 2007. It is also the largest Cell Phone Market with 400M cell phone users vs 202M in the US at the end of 2007. Consider China cell phone penetration rate is only at 30+% vs 70% in the US, you can see why all the handset manufactures treat China as the most strategic target. So many possibilities and so little time…

05.20.08

What’s new?

Posted in Technology Ventures at 10:45 pm by Ray Wu

It has been a while since I blogged last time. I guess I dropped the ball here. With a new baby, various consulting and investing projects and traveling, it becomes hard for me to blog. I will try to do more going forward :)

Here is a picture on the Beijing street as the earth quake happened on May 12th. Luckily, my building was very solid that I hardly feel the building shake, but everyone was running.

bj_earthquake.jpg

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